Nice, congrats! So no i9 then? Thought you were hellbent on high core count CPU cause of the GalCiv. Anyway, is the 8700k delidded? Are you going to try OCing it to 5 GHz and above?

The problem with getting an i9 is you're looking at spending at least $900-$1,600 "US Dollars" on the processor alone

@Larsenex I had delided my i7-8700K and put a liquid metal TIM in place which dropped my per core temps by 12-18c. However do know there are plenty of dangers to go with the upsides though since you'd be putting an electrically conductive TIM in place which if you're not careful can fry your CPU. Also the sheer act of delidding the CPU itself voids the warranty even if you don't physically damage the chip.

Also do note: if you want to use the liquid metal TIM between your processor & cooling solution, it WILL Destroy any heatsink made of Aluminum since Gallium and Aluminum don't mix well -- The Corsair Hydro all use Copper bases if I remember correctly.

One more note on liquid metal TIM: People have reported it forming Pock Marks on other surfaces such as copper & nickel which do require you to re-apply the TIM at a later time to fill those areas. Potentially those cases it had Aluminum mixed in but that's just a guess at this point.

Not gonna delid the processor. Ill stick with the Hydro series and stay at a comfy 4.5 gighz which is just fine. I know I will see 'some' gains pushing to 5 ghz but I am very happy at 4.5 maaaaybe 4.7. I haver SERIOUS questions on the bios oc tools that Asrok is showing me. There is Cache core clock which stays at 3.7 and there is 'boosted clock which shows at 4.5. I changed the multiplier to 45 (4.5) and saw all values go to 4.5ghz including cache clock.

However

While in bios it has some settings one of which says the 3.7ghz stays 'until OS handoff' which I take to mean the over clocking does not take effect until we leave the bios and are in Windows. Is this correct?

While in bios it has some settings one of which says the 3.7ghz stays 'until OS handoff' which I take to mean the over clocking does not take effect until we leave the bios and are in Windows. Is this correct?

That is correct, many different motherboard manufacturers do that but name it slightly differently, that way there's little to no chance for the OS load to get corrupted by an unstable overclocking.